A Place Further Than The Universe

Overview

A Place Further Than The Universe was yet another good anime from this Winter season. If Laid-Back Camp was “cute girls go camping” then A Place Further Than The Universe is “cute girls go camping: Antarctica edition.”

However, the two series aren’t as similar as that comparison makes them out to be. This series was also slice of life, but it was more adventure. It’s also not as episodic, although I do think it could have used a bit more episodic parts towards the end of the series which I’ll explain in a bit.

The series was about a group of four high school girls who go on an expedition to Antarctica. Each girl has her own reasons for going on the trip, but none of them would have made it without the help of the others. It’s a story about making new friends more than anything else.

13 episodes puts this anime barely on the longer end of one cour series, but I actually think this would have worked better as a two cour anime based off the pace of the series. The season starts with the girls in Japan, and ends with them back in Japan, so it covers the full journey they went on.

However, it takes roughly half or more of the season before the girls even reach Antarctica. Further, when in Antarctica, we don’t really get that much adventuring which is my only real complaint. In the OP, which isn’t linked below this time because I couldn’t find it yet, we see the girls actually doing adventurous things in Antarctica, but this is almost entirely skipped over in the actual show.

Characters

The first of the four main girls on the adventure is Kimari. She has had a fairly boring high school life so far and wants to go somewhere and do something exciting before she finishes high school. Luckily for her, she meets Shirase who has a plan to go to Antarctica.

Kimari is the energetic, but not very bright character. She seems to be able to make friends with anyone she talks to, but is also frequently the target of jokes from the others. Despite basically going to Antarctica on a whim, she appears to be the one most excited about it.

Shirase is the main reason the other girls end up going to Antarctica. She was the one who originally wanted to go there because her mother was once part of an Antarctic Expedition, but got lost in a blizzard and never came home. Shirase wants to go because she either believes her mother is still waiting for her there, or because she wants to get some sort of closure.

Due to her reasons for going to Antarctica, Shirase is the most serious of the group. She also knows just about everything there is to know about Antarctica because she has been doing research on it for years in preparation.

Hinata is my favorite girl of the group. She dropped out of high school and works at a convenience store waiting until she can take college entrance exams. However, after meeting Kimari and Shirase, she decides to accompany them to Antarctica because she wants to go somewhere she can get away from people.

Like Kimari, Hinata is full of energy and seems to have an easy time making new friends. However, she’s better than Kimari because she’s actually makes jokes and isn’t the joke herself. Hinata is probably the best girl of the Winter 2018 season, but that’s a topic for a future post.

The final girl is Yuzuki. She was actually scheduled to go on the Antarctic Expedition from the start as part of her work as an actress, but she didn’t want to go. However, once she meets the other girls, she is convinced to go on the adventure with her new friends.

Yuzuki is probably my least favorite of the girls just because she seems to be less important than the others. There’s not really anything special about her that I can really think of; she’s just kind of there.

Hinata and Shirase

Conclusion

A Place Further Than The Universe was generally a feel-good anime, but it did have some other emotions mixed in, especially towards the end when the journey is coming to a close. Overall I would give this anime a 7/10, but just because it didn’t break into the 8+ range doesn’t mean it should be overlooked.

Remember, a 5 is average so a 7 is good. 7 may seem like my average, but that’s just because I tend to watch anime that I think I’ll like instead of just every anime.

What really made this series stand out for me though was its combination of slice of life and adventure genres. It had a good plot like an adventure anime should and that could have been enough, but the characters also were able to carry the series on their own like in a good slice of life anime.

The interactions between the four main characters were entertaining enough to be a whole series alone, so adding a good plot to that just made for an even better viewing experience.

Luckily for me, and anyone else who liked this anime, there may be a second season eventually. Since the story ended in a good spot, and it was an anime original story, there’s no real need for another season. However, the ending did set up the possibility for a sequel and that’s what I’ll hope for.

I couldn’t find the OP animation for this series, so instead here‘s the full ED song because I like it more than the OP song.